Despite Bentley resignation, AL Senate creating new impeachment rules

Robert Bentley's resignation may have put an end to impeachment hearings, but Alabama lawmakers want to make sure if it ever happens again they are ready.

"We do not want to have them to reinvent the wheel," Sen. Phil Williams, R-DeKalb County, stated.

Williams and a special committee have created a model, which if passed, would strengthen subpoena power while giving a clear process on how it would move in the Senate.

"I think having the infrastructure in there now so everyone knows what the ground rules look like if it goes to a trial that's a much faster and much sounder process as opposed to making it up on the fly," Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabama, explained.

Lawmakers pretty much had to make it up on the fly, leading to battles over the process and subpoenas, dragging things out.

However, under the new rules, the legislature could enforce its subpoenas with penalties. The new rules would also allow senate members to ask questions during any "trial" portion and overturn a judge's ruling.

Lawmakers may not need to use the process for quite some time because the last impeachment process before Bentley's was more than a century ago.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling for the removal of Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol as the contentious debate over the appropriateness of such memorials moves to the halls of Congress.More >>

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Hope turned to disappointment for Brooks and his supporters Tuesday night, when he came up short in the GOP primary. He finished third behind Strange and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the charismatic outsider.

Hope turned to disappointment for Brooks and his supporters Tuesday night, when he came up short in the GOP primary. He finished third behind Strange and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the charismatic outsider.